“While the FCC places regulations on television and radio to control propaganda, to my knowledge no such legislation has been enacted to protect the Internet from covert propaganda,” Jones said.
Jones may be a bit too late in uncovering Kony 2012. While supporters did come out for the April 20 campaign, the big event largely fizzled.
“The hyped event’s meager turnout could have a number of causes: our fleeting digital attention spans, or viral content’s fireworks-to-fizzle trajectories, or the challenges of translating online activism to real-world change, or Invisible Children’s failure to capitalize on the attention it had once it still had it, or Invisible Children’s own pivot when it came to the stated goal of the event, or the widespread backlash that brought phrases like ‘the white savior industrial complex’ newly, and powerfully, into the mass consciousness,” wrote The Atlantic’s Megan Garber in her blog on the magazine’s website on Tuesday.
While we applaud Jones’ efforts in targeting the exploitation of social media, it seems at least in this case the message was the messenger, namely Russell. And who wants to “like” a crazy man masturbating in public?